On June 20, the Maine Turnpike Authority’s five top executives and four of their consultants had one of their “management dinners,” which the authority has held every month or so for eight years. The men went across Portland from authority headquarters near the turnpike to one of Maine’s most expensive restaurants, Eve’s, in the Portland Harbor Hotel on Fore Street. After cocktails, they had lobster, filet mignon (“pan-seared, pepper-crusted, locally raised,” the menu says), and other delicacies, washed down with a $295 bottle of Chateau Mouton Rothschild 1999, the restaurant’s most expensive wine, a red Bordeaux (“highly complex flavors, hints of truffle and licorice,” says a wine guide). They also drank a $95 Treana and several other pricey bottles listed on their bill, a copy of which the Phoenix obtained and which was confirmed by turnpike officials. The total, with tip, came to $1342.28 or, on average, $149 per person.

A consultant, Vincent Leonetti, picked up the tab, and, he told the Phoenix, is not asking for reimbursement. A former South Jersey Transportation Authority official, he was recently hired to give advice on renovations to the service plazas. The turnpike pays him $100 an hour. He has a contract for up to 18 months, with no maximum total. So far this year, he has received $5918, the authority says.

On its face, it would seem impossible or foolish for state-agency employees to accept the gift of this expensive meal from a contractor. Strict ethics rules set up to thwart conflicts of interest — or public perception of conflicts of interest — prevent state employees from accepting any gifts from consultants or anyone else. They are reminded of this in a memo each holiday season, says Edward Karass, the state controller, who oversees state-government expenditures from his office in Augusta.

But the Maine Turnpike Authority is different from many other state agencies. It doesn’t have to abide by the normal state ethics rules. And, according to its spokesman, Dan Paradee, it doesn’t have its own code of financial ethics.

The June 20 dinner was, in fact, an exception. Usually such dinners are paid for – albeit indirectly – from the turnpike authority's coffers. That practice, too, separates the turnpike from most other state agencies, where official spending for dinners is subject to strict guidelines.

The way these dinners generally work, turnpike officials say, is that another consultant who was at the meal at Eve’s, Roland Lavallee, of HNTB Corporation, is the one who pays. But then the authority reimburses HNTB for the food, including meals eaten by the HNTB executives present. (The booze, though, is covered by HNTB, says Lavallee, making it another — and regular — gift to the turnpike personnel that employees in other state agencies would be ethics-bound to refuse.)

But when the Maine Turnpike Authority pays, who actually shells out? Since the authority is entirely financed by tolls, those of us who toss our coins into the toll baskets are the people who pay. We threw in $84 million last year, when the tolls jumped considerably. (Or we bought E-ZPasses.) They are spending our money on these dinners.

Baldacci raids the cookie jar Under the American system of government, the legislative branch is supposed to decide how your tax money is spent, but . . .

Law to address state ethics shortcomings Three weeks after the Portland Phoenix first reported that Maine Turnpike Authority officials had been treated to a $1342 dinner at a posh Portland restaurant, Governor John Baldacci has asked all so-called “independent” state agencies to adopt a code of ethics if they do not already have one.

Some people have real problems Mainers are facing grievous financial burdens. Stores and factories are shutting down. Businesses that stay open are laying people off. Unemployment is rising as fast as the foreclosure rate on homes. And housing prices are sinking like the value of retirement accounts.

We started nothing The first thing you have to understand about how the Maine Legislature works is: It doesn't. And it isn't supposed to.

Battle over open space in North Providence Will the last large piece of open space in North Providence turn into the site of 47 single family homes? That decision currently rests with the Rhode Island General Assembly and the Rhode Island Supreme Court. The outcome could jeopardize open space preservation statewide.

Cash carousel Even though the dollar has taken an international whupping of late, there remains at least one place where the love of the greenback remains strong: Beacon Hill.

For governor: Deval Patrick Progressive and reform-minded voters have two excellent choices in next week’s Democratic primary for governor: Chris Gabrieli and Deval Patrick.

Patrick's opponents Charlie Baker, former head of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and onetime finance chief for governors William Weld and Paul Cellucci, was scheduled to file papers this week to officially open his gubernatorial campaign. With that, he also unofficially kicks off the 2010 Massachusetts election season.

Official propaganda Isn't it sinister or at least creepy in a democracy for citizens to foot the bill for politicians and high officials to propagandize them?

Spare-Parts Department The family of a two-and-a-half-year-old Gloucester boy hopes that a new bill, filed in the State Senate by North Shore state senator Bruce Tarr on Monday, December 15, will prompt increased participation in organ donation, especially pediatric organs.

SUBVERSIVE SUMMER | June 18, 2014 Prisons, pot festivals, and Orgonon: Here are some different views of summertime Maine — seen through my personal political lens.

LEFT-RIGHT CONVERGENCE - REALLY? | June 06, 2014 “Unstoppable: A Gathering on Left-Right Convergence,” sponsored by consumer advocate Ralph Nader, featured 26 prominent liberal and conservative leaders discussing issues on which they shared positions. One was the minimum wage.

STATE OF POLARIZATION | April 30, 2014 As the campaign season begins, leading the charge on one side is a rural- and northern-Maine-based Trickle-Down Tea Party governor who sees government’s chief role as helping the rich (which he says indirectly helps working people), while he vetoes every bill in sight directly helping the poor and the struggling middle class, including Medicaid expansion, the issue that most occupied the Legislature this year and last.

MICHAEL JAMES SENT BACK TO PRISON | April 16, 2014 The hearing’s topic was whether James’s “antisocial personality disorder” was enough of a mental disease to keep him from being sent to prison.